Dining Picks: Two restaurants for summertime tastes of Rhode Island

Ella’s Fine Food & Drink at 2 Tower St. at Route 1, Westerly, is run by a chef with a love affair with New England.

Last fall, I visited Ella’s Fine Food & Drink at 2 Tower St. at Route 1, Westerly, and learned about James Beard-nominated chef Jeanie Roland’s love affair with New England.

For the last decade, she’s been cooking in Florida and missing the New England seafood and the produce she grew up with in Connecticut and at her family’s summer home in Charlestown R.I. She relishes going to Charlestown to pick up Walrus & Carpenter Oysters harvested on the waters of Ninigret Pond, and prizes visiting spots such as Carpenter’s Farm in Wakefield for corn picked fresh on a summer morning.

The restaurant just expanded its hours to add Sunday 4-8 p.m. to its dinner schedule serving Tuesday through Saturday.

Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. Several buildings are set back and there’s no sign by the road.

But should the giant lobster on the front wall beckon, a surprise awaits. Within the confines of Duffy’s a menu of wonderfully fresh and well-prepared seafood would appeal to anyone seeking a fine meal with prices that are equally desirable.